Overview

Michael Farley refers to himself as a music-human. He is a composer and a teacher whose courses include Composition, Music and Society in New Orleans and a first-year seminar, Music and Place. Much of his creative work and research explores relationships between place and musical sound.

The Garden: a soundscape for percussionist and tape, is based upon principles of Japanese gardening. Taking in the Towers is a multimedia oratorio concerning Watts Towers in Los Angeles. Milton Avery in Kansas is Farley's first video work. It’s based upon the movement of wheat in the wind in western Kansas and it may be experienced on his recent cd, Grain (Innova CD723). Michael’s analysis of geographic and demographic influences on the development of the blues was recently published in Routledge’s Encyclopedia of the Blues.

Skeletons in the closet include years on the road as singer, saxophonist and bass player for the band, Patchwork. Michael may currently be heard playing rhythm and blues with the Radio Bob Band.

Education: Bachelors of Music Education at University of Central Missouri; MA and Ph.D. in Composition and Theory at The University of Iowa

Current professional/research interests: My creative creative work and research explores relationships between place and musical sound.

Recent publications/conferences:

Article concerning calypso for forthcoming Encyclopedia of Popular Music in the Caribbean (Routledge), 2009.GRAIN a compact disc of my compositional work published by Innova Records, 2009.

Professional associations memberships: College Music Society, American Composers Forum, Society for American Music; Society for Ethnomusicology.

Classes taught: Composition: Text and Sound; Music and Place (First-Year Seminar); Introduction to Music; Musics of the World; Popular Music in the US; New Orleans Music and Society; Finding A Voice (First-Year Program).